Winning the King of the Indies Tournament changed Bryan Danielson's career.
Bryan Danielson was a guest on Wrestling Observer Radio. He spoke about the event that took place in October of 2001. APW (All Pro Wrestling) held their second "King of the Indies" tournament in Vallejo, California. The tournament had the top independent wrestlers from across the world, featuring AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, and Doug Williams, just a few participants in the 16-man event. Bryan Danielson would win the "King of the Indies" after defeating Low Ki in the finals.
I wasn't supposed to win that King of Indies tournament, and then Nick Bockwinkel, apparently, I wasn't part of this conversation, told Roland Alexander, who was booking the tournament, 'if you don't put that guy over, you're crazy,' talking about me, which did change the trajectory of my career. I was supposed to lose to Donovan Morgan; I think in the semifinals, he put me and Low Ki in the finals, which was also the finals of the Super 8 Tournament, which was probably the biggest Independent tournament at the time. He had me win. What it really did for me, more than anything else, was it made me, to the Independent Wrestling Community, make me seem like a true main event guy. At the time, I was struggling a little bit.
Danielson had a developmental deal with the World Wrestling Federation from 2000 to 2001; he would get released eighteen months later.
I had gotten let go under a developmental deal for a little over a year with WWE; they let me go when they bought WCW. They had all these cruiserweights who had already been on TV. I was really struggling to find footing. I was getting a lot of bookings, but in the Vancouver area, a Canadian company called ECCW (Elite Canadian Championship Wrestling) was paying $70 Canadian, which was like $45 American. I was going to college, working two jobs. It was a real struggle. That changed my career around where, all of a sudden, I could get paid $100 a show, and people were bringing me out. Roland Alexander offered me a job as the head trainer at All Pro Wrestling at $350 a week, and I was like, 'I'll take it.' It was a great chance. I didn't feel qualified as a head trainer when I took it. I told Roland that, and he said, 'you will have help,' and we had this whole guidebook. I was trying to teach people to wrestle made me a better wrestler, as it does with many people in anything. You try to teach somebody something; you have to know it more deeply. That was a real turning point for my career, and it was also the inspiration from my understanding of Ring of Honor.
Danielson would take part in the main event match for the first-ever ROH show in February 2022, battling Christopher Daniels and Low Ki in the main event.
You can find Danielson's thoughts on Tony Khan purchasing ROH by clicking here.
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